It’s been a little while since the last update from NYC’s Jam Central Station. The final A*T of May saw yet another Guest Jammer join us unannounced as Boston’s own Alan Caplin made an appearance. The turnout was small that day with Roger, Fresh, The Oracle, and Fearless Lou coming out despite the forecast of inclement weather. Heck, they said there was only a 30% chance of rain anyway. Except in reality, it is either 100% raining or it ain’t. So we all got up quickly to get in our innings, hoping to get in an official game. This lasted for about a half hour because the there was lightning to the west, then the north, and finally the east. Then big fat drops of cold rain battered our hard heads, driving us all to the safety of our local dive for refreshing beverages and comestibles. During our stroll, Roger was not feeling so jolly and said, ya’ know, I’m getting tired reading how every Jam is so amazing and everyone shreds in the A*TC’s. One day I wanna hear how everybody dropped and played like crap. We all cracked up, your intrepid reporter included. Heck, I just calls ’em like I sees ’em, right? Right?

June 3rd – The air was thick and the temperature was up there as we regrouped for our weekly adventures in plastic. Rob and Sue were out bright and early, as was the Ageless Brown, and my boy Fearless Lou. Bradford T. came in with a big smile and the hope that he could avoid the Yella Jersey since Sir Tedley and the Lovely Chrissy were both absent the previous week. Alas, they were out in foggy Montauk vacationing, so he was duty bound to wear the color of shame. Ralph Heaver and Jaime TJH were there, along with Quinn-O, Fresh, and The Oracle who planted The Gamboa on the Manhole. Finally, Young Daniel came back from the Jammers bearing the touring Super Pro for an A*T appearance. Being a bit of a traditionalist, I had wondered about this disc because it didn’t have the Flying Eagle sticker that I recalled so fondly on my first favorite Frisbee. I took a close look at the HDX plastic and found that it was indeed a 61-mold, so I grudgingly gave it props. Just kiddingâ€”never any grudges against vintage plastic.

So we all started Jamming. Roger and Brad (who looked ravishing in that little Yella number) hit it first. Rob, Fresh, Joey, and Dan went at it, while I hit the long tossing thing to air out my arm. Other combinations included me and the Oracle, and we were joined by Roger. Dan and Joey later got some, inspiring Fresh to join them. Quinn-O, Lou, me, and later Roger went for it. The air was thick and the energy was eh. Nobody really got hot. People, it was All-Crumb Thursday. Other than Dan hitting a nice Lacer, we collectively had nothin’. I blame this turn of events on the end of our 2010 streak of having a Guest Jammer every week. We needed fresh blood to make it work, or something. Roger was awarded The Gamboa by attrition saying Tis better to have Jammed and Gamboa d, than to not Jam at all. The Yella Designee was certainly Sir Tedley, though many voted for spraying it with water and having the Lovely Chrissy don it. Yes, men are pigs it’s one of our endearing qualities. 😀

June 10th “ The weatherman was calling for rain, which probably kept Robbie-Rob and his tweaked neck indoors. Me? I found a parking spot right off the park, looked up, saw nothing but blue sky, and CHOSE to leave my umbrella in the back seat. More on that later. I was the first to arrive, followed swiftly by Jaime TJH, Fearless Lou, Daniel, The Oracle, and Mary-Mary. Guitar Sean, a new member of the tribe who had just played a gig down the block from Chez Meier was out, Bradford T. Quinn-O, the Ageless Trevor Brown, Ted/Shred and the Lovely Chrissy rounded out the field.

Roger and Brad, Trevor and Quinn-O, and Lou and Daniel, started us off and I got up with Ted Shred. The Oracle hopped in with me and TO before heading to see Jorma (the new artist-in-residence at Iridium), and things were strangely shaky. When I sensed that the Flow was not with us, I chose to bail, giving the two Grandmasters room to get loose. I joined Lou and Dan to find my groove as the clouds began rolling in. And then it rained. It rained hard. It rained harder still. And yet, the Hard Corp of the Big Apple was undeterred. We all played through the prickly precipitation that splattered around us. Suddenly my decision to leave my giant golf umbrella in the car seemed less wise as the Lovely Chrissy, Trevor, Jaime, and Mary-Mary huddled under a small folding umbrella waiting for the sun to come back out. And did it ever.

It seems there was just one friggin’ cloud that passed over our Green beach, and once it left, the conditions and Jams were both magnificent. We even had a rainbow to inspire us onward to greater heights. I snatched up TedShred when Joey split, and we got it going pretty good, starting with back to back Gitis. That’s right, I hit a Gitis to begin this Jam answering TO’s. Then Roger joined in, and it was on. The rest of the Jams are kind of a blur. There were two iterations of 6-man mob-ops, as well as a couple of smaller units. The penultimate jam had TedShred, Fearless, Quinn-O, Roger, Daniel, and me. There were multiple finales to this Jam because folks stopped for a bit and got back up because it was too early to quit. TO hit a double spinning Flamingosis for his finale, Quinn-O a nasty Scarecrow, Lou a sweet combo, and I got me a nice Triple-Fake. Young Dan was too hyped to just quit, so he got a late arriving Ivan for the last moments of the last Jam and they Gitised out. Nice!

Fresh was designated as the next Yella Man, edging out Rob who is on the day-to-day DL. Roger called this â€œthe best All*Star Thursday of the year and who am I to argue. We didn’t have the adrenaline rush of having Zanardi, The Beast, or Alan, or Bruce, or any of our wonderful friends. We had to suck it up and make it happen on our own, and we did indeed.